Agility Robotics has started selling Digit, a two-legged robot which is known for lifting about 40-pound packages. Agility Robotics also confirmed that the first customer to use Digit will be Ford Motor as they have been involved with robotics startup since las year.
Ford Motors announced ahead of its participation at CES 2020 in Las Vegas that they will receive the first two robots from the production line. Ford and Agility Robotics have been working together to test self-driving vehicles wherein they can utilize the expertise of Agility Robotic to resolve the 50-feet problem mentioned earlier by company’s CTO Ken Washington.
Formed in late 2015 at the Oregon State University, Agility aims to commercialize research on bipedal locomotion. The company considers making Digit available for the sale as a great milestone which was initially an ostrich-inspired Cassie robot in 2017 as a bipedal research platform. The robot further developed into Digit by adding an upper torso, arms, sensors and additional computing power to the Cassie design.
Digit was introduced in spring 2019 which was further refined by the company by adding better design, more advanced feet that allow Digit to balance on one foot or carefully navigate obstacles, better robot navigation with new sensors to perceive and map the world.
Washington in a statement said that as online retailing continues growing, we believe robots will help our commercial customers build stronger businesses by making deliveries more efficient and affordable for all of us. He further added, “We learned a lot this year working with Agility, now we can accelerate our exploratory work with commercial Digit robots.”
Digit as a robot has a multitude of applications although Ford is primarily interested in its support in self-driving cars.
